Fairfax County Police Watch: Deputy charged with rape may have more victims, accuser's attorneys say

By Dan Kennedy,

The Hamilton County sheriff's deputy fired for allegedly raping a woman while on patrol may have had more victims.

Attorneys for the first alleged victim said Tuesday they're looking for at least one more woman to come forward.

"What makes this case so egregious is that Officer Greer is charged with protecting the community," said Attorney Bill Speek. "What he did on that day and what we suspect he's done previous times is take advantage of the very people he's charged with protecting."

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Attorney Bill Speek represents the woman who said Deputy Willie Greer pulled her over for speeding, handcuffed her, and forced her to perform a sex act.

According to the affidavit, Greer admitted the incident happened but called the act "consensual." Greer was charged with official misconduct and aggravated rape, and fired from his job.

Speek said there's evidence of least one more victim from January 5 and that new information now has multiple agencies investigating. But Greer has not been charged in that.

"We know on the same day there was one, we're looking to learn more information on if there was more in the previous days," Speek said. "What you won't have access to are some of the confidential files that exist for police officers, we're looking into those right now. We have some information that indicates his record is not as clean as you may otherwise think."

"What we're asking for is that any other victim of Officer Greer that day come forward, contact our office, contact Chattanooga police, contact the FBI, but come forward so we can help put behind bars somebody who has taken an oath to protect our citizens but has also abused them in the process."

In January, Sheriff Jim Hammond said Greer had no previous problems. He had been with the county for three months. Our partners at The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported in January he previously worked as a campus officer at Chattanooga State.

"The vetting process was normal, there was nothing to indicate this behavior might happen," Sheriff Hammond said in January. "There's no reason to believe this would occur."

In court Tuesday, Greer told Judge Lila Statom he's hired a new attorney, Johnny D. Houston, Jr. Judge Statom pushed his hearing back to May 13 but warned Greer to be ready come that date. Tuesday was not the first time his hearing has been passed to a new date.

"But you need to do your best to have him hired by this date because that would be a long time that you would be out on bond," the judge told Greer.

Houston had no comment on his new client's behalf Tuesday. Channel 3 will be back in court May 13 for Greer's next scheduled hearing.

Morrogh finds cop he doesn’t love. In other news, hell freezes.

Probe of fatal police shooting goes to federal authorities

By Justin Jouvenal/Post

The Fairfax County prosecutor has turned over the investigation of a fatal police shooting of an unarmed Springfield man to federal authorities, citing complications with the five-month-old case.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh said the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia has agreed to continue the probe into the death of 46-year-old John Geer, who was shot during a standoff with Fairfax County police in August. No one has been charged in the incident.

“There is a conflict of interest that has arisen in the case,” Morrogh said Thursday. “And there is a second potential conflict of interest that has arisen out of my office. . . . This is the prudent thing to do.”

Morrogh declined to describe the nature of the conflicts because the investigation is ongoing. The U.S. attorney’s office said Thursday that it could not confirm or deny any investigation or comment on pending investigations.

Police went to Geer’s Pebble Brook Court home on Aug. 29 because of a report of a domestic disturbance. Geer’s father, Don Geer, said his son was upset because his girlfriend, the mother of his two children, had decided to leave him.

John Geer had thrown his girlfriend’s belongings in the front yard. She called police and told them that Geer had a firearm. Police said they tried for about 50 minutes to persuade Geer to leave the home, but he refused.

Don Geer said he watched the climax of the encounter. He said that he could not hear what officers were saying to his son but that he saw him standing with empty hands resting on top of a screen door at the home’s entrance.

At some point, John Geer began to slowly lower his hands and an officer opened fire, hitting Geer in the chest, his father said. Geer retreated inside and closed the door. A SWAT team eventually entered the home and found Geer dead.

Don Geer said detectives later told him that his son did not have a gun on him at the time of the shooting but that there was a holstered handgun a couple of steps from the front door.

Don Geer said it appeared to him that the shooting was unjustified, but he was unsure what to make of the probe being turned over to federal authorities.

“I don’t know whether that’s good or bad — if I had a better idea of why they are doing it, I could form an opinion,” he said.

Geer and friends of his son have been critical of how long the investigation has taken, but Morrogh said police and prosecutors were working to explore all the evidence. He did not think federal prosecutors would have to start from scratch.

“No one wants these things to linger on,” Morrogh said.

Our ink will outlast his career

Under the reign of former Chief of Police Rhorer the Fairfax County Police arrested a man for not wearing clothes in his house while he made coffee, set up an eye doctor on a gambling charge and then used the SWAT team to kill him. An investigation into the charge that the Doctor’s primary clients were cops has never been investigated. The police gunned down an emotionally unstable man because cop who shot him wrongly assumed the man was trying to escape. He wasn’t. The cops also shot dead four other citizens under highly questionable circumstances. The department under Rhorer was sued multiple times by citizens. So did they fire Rhorer? Naw they promoted him. According to news reports Rhorer draws a salary of $191,168 per year as Deputy Fairfax County Executive as well as a concurrent pension from the Fairfax County police of $173000 per year.

Occupation by force

According to the most recent U.S. Census figures, nearly one in five Fairfax residents (17.5 percent) is of Asian descent while Hispanics make up nearly 16 percent of Fairfax’s overall population. Those numbers drop considerably when applied to the Fairfax County Police Department, where only 4.3 percent of officers are Asian and 4.1 percent Hispanic. White officers make up 84 percent of Fairfax County’s 1,360-member police department, significantly higher than the county’s general population (54 percent white). Almost 90% of the force lives outside the county.